


Lightning Pilot

by Nameha



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, Attempted Murder, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Human Experimentation, M/M, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, scifi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:14:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25156834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nameha/pseuds/Nameha
Summary: Kakashi Hatake, call sign Lightning Pilot, a lone Ranger of Konoha’s Interstellar Corps traverses the lonely expanse of deep space investigating anomalies. After he boards an abandoned research vessel he finds himself caught between obligation and a conspiracy, so intricate and unnerving, that it threatens life as he knows it.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Yamato | Tenzou, Uchiha Obito/Yamato | Tenzou
Comments: 9
Kudos: 33





	Lightning Pilot

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be honest, this is very different from what I normally write. But! I've had this in my head for awhile and decided to just go for it! It's supposed to be a pretty long one so i'm not really sure when i'll be updating it inbetween working on other things.
> 
> The title is from a fanart of the same name!

A single ship drifts through the vast, lonely, expanse of space. Past endless starfields. Pink, green and blue dust accumulating in impressive clouds. Past colossal, celestial giants with swirling rings of varying sizes and composition. The constant radiation of foreign suns ignite the blackdrop of the void in a dazzling display of distant, burning, fires.

The ship continues it’s lonesome voyage. 

A light clicks on in the cabin, painting the room in a wash of red, the high pitched ring of an alarm follows.

Kakashi turns, shifting his weight to his side as he brings his palm down on the incessant blare of the clock. He focuses on the glowing time stamp: 8am Konoha time. But what should it matter? Hurling through the cavities of space if it’s 8am or 8pm, it’s dark outside anyways. It always is, save for the tail light flickers of stars gone by. 

The fluorescents kick on not a few seconds later, temporarily blinding him. He covers his face with his arms with a groan, turning his face away from the harsh overhead lights. He doesn’t make a move to get up, opting to lay still. Taking his arms away from his face to stare blankly at the off color grey panels of the ceiling.

It wouldn’t hurt, to sleep a little longer, to stay here in the comfortable confines of his bed. He doesn’t have to get up, he doesn’t need to. There isn’t a need when he’s thousands of light-years from society, from anyone that would hold him responsible. 

But that’s a dangerous line of thought, he can recognize that much. 

The beginnings of Oblivion Syndrome. The insidious thought that nothing matters, not out here. It wouldn’t matter if he stayed in bed for a couple more hours, it wouldn’t matter if he skipped a meal or two, it wouldn’t matter if he abandoned his duties as a Ranger, a Pilot. It wouldn’t matter if he died, his ship left abandoned to coast through the bleak unknown of uncharted territories. 

He’s known Rangers, better than him, that have succumbed to the call. Boarded ships, adrift in the starfields, the Rangers, wasted away, only shells of the men they used to be. No will to go on. Just another peril in the life of a lone Pilot.  
But that would be a merciful end, one that he doesn’t deserve. He wills himself up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, elbows on his knees, to stare out the cabin windows, particles of burning star dust whizzing past. He scrubs a hand over his face before he decides to stand, stretching out his sleep numbed muscles. Snatching his standard issue pants from a pile at his feet, he slips into them, tying them loosely around his waist. He rolls his shoulder with a sigh, he’s been asleep but he doesn’t feel rested, typical. 

He pads down the lonely stretch of hallway, a ship built for a cell of four though only, big enough it seems, to house one. He thinks he can hear them, still, after all these years, the footsteps that echo behind him, only to stop when he does. Ghostly reminders of what could have been. It’s the isolation talking, he thinks, there’s just him.

He hangs a right into the medical bay, not a bay so much as a stark white room with a single bed situated in the center. Various medical contraptions line the wall. Glowing red and green service lights blink in sequence. He scrunches up his nose, pulling his mask firmly into place. No matter how much blood and debris enter the room the stale stench of perpetual sterility remains. It’s nauseating.

He saunters up to his chosen machine. Bolted into the wall as tall as him and just as wide, a plexiglass shield housing internal components, an arm rest and various, thin, mechanical arms posed to assist. It reminds him of something an optometrist would use, with it’s chin holster jutting out and optic registration device that sits, just above the chin holster, at eye level. All that’s missing, he muses, is the chart to register seeing distance. He places his chin in the holder while a laser scans his exposed eye, the red blur that flints across his iris makes him see double.  
**“Voice Verification Required.”** Comes the cool, standard voice of the operating system. The only voice he ever hears, his constant companion.

“Lightning Pilot.”

A whirling click sounds and a circle appears on the screen: **Authenticating**. He waits while the computer retrieves the data, it takes it a minute. But he’s in no rush. There’s nowhere to be.

Another click: **Authentication Approved.** The glass slides up to expose the arm rest.

He places his arm, palm up, inside the glass. He watches the laser slide over his arm in rapid succession, the fish net pattern that glides across his skin is warm but not unwelcome. He monitors the code that fills the screen with careful eyes.

**“Foreign Contaminate Detected.”  
“Foreign Contamination Level: 86.9%.”**

The voice drones the results, bringing up a graph from the last couple months, the contamination levels steady before spiking the last couple weeks. It’s spreading faster than before.

“I wonder…what will happen, when it finally takes me over…” Kakashi chuckles, humorlessly. He estimates he only has a couple more months left until then. He’s already past the point of no return.

“Am I going to be a monster too?” Kakashi exhales, eyes falling shut for a moment. He pulls his arm away, sliding the patch from his left eye. He catches a glimpse of it in the small rectangle mirror above the machine. Red, black and in a lazy spin. 

The source of it all, he knows. 

He steels himself, placing his chin back in the strap as the laser flickers across his borrowed eye. The pupil constricts to a pin prick in agitation as the tomoe picks up speed. The whirling lense of red deconstructs the light of the laser, allowing him to see individual particles with slow moving clarity.

**“Bacterial Contaminate Detected.”  
“Bacterial Contaminate: Sharingan : Bacterial Class : Symbiote : Bacterial Transfer Class: Hereditary.”**

Information he’s already aware of. Clans of interstellar origins had developed a way to cope in the recesses of space, segregated from other life forms. A form of evolutionary prowess, Bacterial Symbiosis. What had first started out as a foreign infection in their ancestors had been passed down through the bloodlines to create a symbiotic relationship between the bacteria and the host. This bacteria, the Sharingan, feeds on the hormone adrenaline when agitated, giving the user an intense visual advantage. When not supplied with adrenaline the bacteria go dormant so as to not drain the host unnecessarily.

However, he doesn’t possess the innate dna sequencing to cut the flow of adrenaline as it’s slowly siphoned away, even while he does his best not to agitate the bacteria. His eye reacts to outside as well as internal stimuli. But what will become of him? Someone of another origin merely fronting as a suitable host. He knows, first hand, what could happen to someone whose incompatible with a bacterial contaminate.

But he can’t part with this gift. 

But what happens when the contamination reaches 100%? will his body be able to take it? Will he lose his mind, transform, become some monster like Ri–

That thought is too much to bear.

He tears his face away, replacing the eyepatch and leaving the room quickly. 

It’s better not to think, better not to feel. 

He enters the cockpit, taking his seat and pulling up various maps of his routes, he flips a couple of switches to his left and grabs a cup that’s perched haphazardly on the dash. He rifles through a stash of coffee packets beneath his seat. Bland and instant but it’s caffeine and the available water is lukewarm at best but he’s not picky. He stares down the cup. He has half a mind to just snort the grounds and be done with it. 

He mixes the contents as he scans the display projected on the glass. A new message blinks in the corner of the screen. He sighs, hesitating if only for a moment before clicking on the video left in his inbox. He kicks back and watches the show, taking a sip of his sludge like coffee with a grimace.

“KA-KA-SHI!” The voice booms and Kakashi scrambles to turn down the volume as it rattles the inside of the cockpit. He surveys the damage with his hand still on the dial. Nothing has fallen off the walls, this time. He finds a reasonable level and continues to watch half heartedly as he activates a scan in the neighboring starfields.

“My dearest friend and rival! You haven’t responded to my last message! or the message before that or the message befo–NO MATTER! I will continue to send you my weekly messages until you respond! I am proud to announce that Lee has graduated to become a Pilot! Even without the use of glorious depth perception, through his hard work and determination he was able to achieve his goal! Neji has gone on to become a Captain for the Konoha Interstellar Corps, isn’t that exciting! I could cry tears of joy, and I have! And TenTen! She’s become a high ranking General Engineer! So much has happened in the three years you’ve been away my friend! I wish I could tell you these things in person! Ah, Kakashi…”

Kakashi toys with a paper weight as Gai reads off his students' accomplishments, but he pauses when the tone of Gai’s voice drops to something soft and sincere. He glances up, paperweight forgotten, as Gai is looking off the side.

“I faxed you a newspaper clipping, I think you’d….be proud too, Sakura has…completed her training under Tsunade. She’s a certified medic now, Isn’t that something, rival? But she’s confided in me that she’s continuing on to become a Pilot, a Ranger, like in the beginning. She’s so strong, she hasn’t given up.”

Kakashi reaches down into the fax machine to pull out the clipping. Sakura, his student, former student, is standing proud with her mentor. The second ever interstellar medic. He feels his chest constrict. He’s proud, but he can’t touch the feeling, can’t let it consume him. He runs his fingers over her face, she’s grown so much in the time he’s been gone. He doesn’t have the strength to look to his right. Not yet.

 **“No life forms found.”** The scan startles him out of his stupor, of course there’s nothing out here, there never is, but he’s disappointed all the same.

“There still isn’t…isn’t any new information about–Kakashi, They’ve researched the starfields and surrounding areas, we haven’t been able to find any trace of them yet. I know you’re…out there looking under the guise of your Ranger duties. I support you, I’ve always supported you in this. I, too, wouldn’t rest until they were recovered.”

Kakashi lets his eyes drift to his right, the corkboard full of newspaper clippings and pictures. A cut out of when he first joined the Konoha Interstellar Corps, standing there with this father and his certificate. A snapshot of his assigned team, Obito and Rin, right before their first mission together. Another of him and Obito, Obito smiling and him feigning annoyance. Then, the clipping of the disaster that tore them away from him: 1 dead, 1 missing, 1 survivor of Bacterial Cloud collision. Then, his new team, a new life. A mirror image of what he had lost. 

He gets up, treading carefully, taking a tack from the pile and pinning Sakura’s accomplishment to his wall of failure. The newest one since: Devastating accident reminiscent of team 7’s deadly collision years prior leaves 2 lost among the starfield.

“Kakashi, you always have a home to come back too. I hope to see you soon, until next time!”

The message cuts off, leaving Kakashi in a wash of static; White and black dots like strobing stars in the small space. Staring blankly at the faces of his missing students. Naruto has his arm around Sasuke with a blinding grin, Sasuke is doing his best to look indifferent but there’s a ghost of a smile on his face. They’re holding up their junior pilot exams. They passed. 

Kakashi had promised to take care of them, promised them that nothing would happen. 

Oh, how wrong he had been.

_“Kakashi-Sensei, I’m getting a weird reading on the scan?”  
“What does it say?”  
“Something is coming near the ship, I think? It says it’s not solid it’s like a–”  
“Like a cloud?”  
“Yes, I think?”  
“Sakura, listen carefully. Don’t panic, but you need to port the ship, okay?”  
“But Sasuke’s still out there fixing a panel.”  
“Reel him back in and port the ship, now.”_

_Kakashi watches his screen from Konoha’s Interstellar Surveillance room._

_“Okay, I’ll let him–”_

_Something hits the ship, the line goes static and Kakashi leans forward in his seat, he quickly brings up the feed from the ships outside cameras. A meteor shower. His eyebrows pinch together as his eyes dart between the meteors whizzing past the ship. It doesn’t make any sense, this sector was supposed to be clear, the scans didn’t pick this up._

_“Sakura?”  
“W-We’re okay! Something hit the ship, no damage reported. I’m trying to–SASUKE!”  
“Sakura! What’s happening?!”  
“T-The line got cut! He’s driftin-Naruto! Wait!”_

_The sound of muffled footsteps, an argument filled his ears. He presses further on his ear piece in an attempt to make out anything else._

_“Sakura!”  
“K-Kakashi Sensei, Naruto went out there to tether another line!”  
“No! You need to get him back inside, they both need to be inside, Sakura! You can’t be caught in that cloud, do you understand me?”_

_He can hear the alarms blaring in the back as Sakura’s frantic breathing fills the microphone. A high pitched whine cuts through his thoughts as he’s forced to relive the loss of his previous team, frame by frame over his vision._

_“SAKURA.”_

_His hand trembles on the auto-port switch, he has to make a decision._

_He can hear the rocking thud of the ship being pummeled and Sakura’s terrified shriek as she pleads for help._

_“N-Naruto!”  
“What’s happening?!”  
“T-They’re drifting b-both of them! They can’t come back to the ship! K-Kakashi sensei w-what do I do! H-Help! O-Oh my g-god, th-the cloud!”_

_He can hear Sakura pounding on the glass shield of the ship as she screams for her teammates._

_He can’t think, the images come rapid fire. Burning smoke, a horrifying shriek and the tears that obscure his, now red, vision of the fiery wreckage. The deafening turbulence as his name is choked out through the strangled scream of his teammate for the last time. His hand comes down on the switch._

_All he could save is one, he couldn’t lose all of them._

**“Incoming S.O.S!”**

Kakashi snaps his head to the side, the memories violently shunted away. The alert paints the room in green and red. His left eye throbs in it’s socket as he moves towards the dash.

“Accept the call.” Kakashi takes his seat, a hand over his eye as he focuses on steadying his breathing, he can feel the tomoe of the sharingan in a rapid spin.

The screen fills with a scene of utter chaos, an explosion of sorts in the background as a man with short hair pleads into the camera for aid. The camera is rocked side to side with a thunderous turbulence.

“We need help! There’s been a containment breach! This ship is under attack! I repeat under attack! Heavy casualties have been reported I-No-No no no! Stay away from me! stay the fuck aw–!” The camera is knocked on its side, the feed is still live before it cuts out to play on a loop.

The scan hadn’t picked up any ships in the vicinity, this sector was clear. The signal must have been boosted. He’s outside the range of normal carriers, skimming the edge of this solar system. But he has an obligation to fulfill, investigate any anomalies that he encounters.

“Plot a course for….384, 322, 11.”  
**“Estimated time of arrival 23 hours and 8 minutes.”**

Kakashi thinks it over for a moment, if the situation is as dire as it seemed, there isn’t any time to waste.

“Put a warp on it.”  
**“Estimated time of arrival 16 seconds.”**  
“That’s better.”

He straps in as the ship accelerates, space time stretching out before him to open up in a kaleidoscope tunnel. As he blinks out of existence, his ship screams past a dust cloud that could almost be mistaken for two bodies in an embrace. His controls toggle as the light oscillates in a prism over his face, scattering like lightning.  
The tunnel opens up as he glides through, cutting his engines to pull up to an enormous nondescript vessel. It’s near invisible, as the colossus continues on it’s previous inertia. The large tanker moving slowly against the same backdrop of black as it’s panels. Undetectable if not for the faint S.O.S signal still being broadcasted.  
“Put me through.”  
**“Contact established.”**  
“Konoha Ranger Lightning Pilot requesting permission to board. I repeat, Lightning Pilot requesting permission to board.”

The only answer he receives is tethering static. Kakashi taps on his control panel before standing.

“Take us in.”

As the ship pilots down, Kakashi prepares to board. Taking a suit from the wall, he steps into it. Pulling it over his shoulders to zip it closed. He grimaces as the autospine snaps into place, glowing blue when powered on. He takes his helmet from the shelf, inspecting it in his hands before pulling it over his face. He taps the side of the helmet to bring up the readings on the glass in front of his eyes, the light inside the helmet matches the blue of the autopine. He descends the steps of this ship to the bottom most deck. 

He draws the last piece of his suit, his name sake, from a panel in the lower deck, the Capacitor. He situates it over his right arm and winces when the hypodermics pierce the suit to his skin. Drawing out the protein from his blood, powered by the natural electrical current of his nervous system, the device synthesis the proteins into a potent stream of electricity, lightning.

He works his fingers in a steady motion, in and out, hating the foreign weight of the Capacitor before it adjusts to feel natural.

The ship pulls near the sealed loading dock.

“Fire one round at the base then duck in.” Kakashi commands as he fixes his gloves.

The ship fires and Kakashi braces for the recoil. He isn’t worried about returned fire. From the outside he can’t discern a notable power signature, he isn’t even sure if this ship is equipped with weapons. It looks more like a research vessel than a battlestar.

The ship dips inside and Kakashi releases the hatch, stepping out into the empty hanger. It’s dark, save for the measly lights of what Kakashi supposes is powered by a backup generator. He switches on his flashlight and moves in deeper.

The corridors are long and dark, the yellow overhead lights that line the passageway do little in the way of illumination. It’s quiet, so quiet he can hear the thrum of background radiation vibrating against the hull. What he thinks is dust swirls around the headlamp of his flashlight. He treads carefully, his footfalls echoing on the grated flooring. 

His flashlight falls upon a body up ahead. He draws up his right arm, fingers twitching with anticipation as his pulse picks up. He steps quickly to the man's side before dropping down, fingers on his pulse point. Though it’s useless, he’s been dead for some time if the vegetation growing on his body is any indication.

“What the fuck…?” Kakashi picks a single mushroom from the mans neck, turning it over in his hands, inspecting the glossy red sheen of the mushroom cap in the light. He tosses it aside after a moment, eyes drifting back to the deceased. The man's body is covered in them along with moss and small, pink, flowers. The discovery is unsettling but the man would have been of more use if he was alive. Kakashi leaves him there as he continues further into the ship.

Small weeds and plants sprouting up from metal panels and out from grates puts Kakashi on edge. There’s more plants the further he goes. The number of bodies he finds also increases, some in piles, against the walls or dead where they fell. He keeps his guard up, stalking through the halls, Capacitor at the ready.

A shadow darting behind a corner catches his eye and he breaks into a sprint.

“Hey! Stop!” Kakashi yells as he gives chase, his flashlight bobbing as he runs. He rounds the corner and the first person he’s seen, alive, is standing startled just a few feet from him.

Kakashi takes in their appearance, long hair falling haphazardly over their shoulders, face smudged with dirt, soot, and blood. Their uniform, though it seems a couple sizes too big, is just the same with all matters of gore matted into the stitching. It’s an officer's uniform. Now, he could be useful.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” Kakashi holds up his hands in mock surrender. Nonthreateningly, with palms facing up, though the Capacitor that sits heavy on his right arm is anything but.

“I’m a Ranger from Konoha, call sign Lightning Pilot. I received an S.O.S from this vessel. You’re part of this ships crew?”

The stranger nods, though he seems apprehensive keeping his hands defensively against his chest in closed fists.

“You’re the first person I’ve seen alive, is there anyone else?” Kakashi asks as he takes a step forward and they take a step back, Kakashi sighs and takes a step back himself. Allowing the frightened officer the distance.

Kakashi taps the side of his helmet, the glass and upper half of the helmet recedes to expose his face, the helmet's ventilator still covering his nose down. 

He knows how he looks, clad in the black military spacesuit, heavy weaponry hanging from his waist and arm. The intimidating glow of the autospine not unlike that of an anglerfish waiting in the dark.

“I’m on your side. I’m here to help you. Nothing else will happen while I’m here.” Kakashi does his best to soften his tone, shift his demeanor to something more approachable. It seems to work, the officer drops his hands from his chest so they hang at his side.

“No…There’s….There’s no one else. I’m the only one, I was hiding, I didn’t see anything. The whole crew is…”

Kakashi nods, he doesn’t need to force it out of him, he’s obviously been through enough.

“I understand, can you show me to the command center?”  
“I-I think so, yeah.”  
“Lead the way.”

They nod as they turn on their heel to walk through the winding halls of the ship. Kakashi uses his flashlight to inspect the moss covered walls.

“What sort of ship is this?”  
“Um, it’s a research vessel.”  
“What happened?”  
“I-I don’t know, we were attacked?”  
“By what?”  
“I don’t know…I didn’t see it, I was…below deck and…I heard shouting so I hid.”

Kakashi nods along, the further onto the ship they go the less bodies he sees and the more complex the plant life becomes. Fruit baring trees hang from the vents, berry bushes sprouted seemingly from nothing line the walls.

“What’s your name?”  
“It’s Kinoe.”  
“Kinoe, huh?” Kakashi spies the nametag hanging from his uniform collar, blank side facing out. But the name he does glimpse, doesn’t match, it reads with a character “Yu”. He narrows his eyes in suspicion.

“Sounds more like a rank then a name.”  
“Oh, does it? I-I didn’t notice.”  
“So, what is your rank?”  
“I-I don’t have one. I’m not an officer.”  
“You aren’t? Are you part of the research team then?”  
“Something like that.”

They come to a fork in the hallway, the left reads command center and the right reads observatory. They stand for a moment, Kinoe looking between the signs with confusion before he points to the right side.

“Oh, It’s this way.” Kinoe hangs a right and Kakashi stalls, setting his jaw. An officer, in an officer’s uniform, but who isn’t really an officer and with no rank going the wrong direction doesn’t sit right with him. But he follows anyway. Hoping Kinoe is just confused in his shock. They come out into a grand open space with a glass dome ceiling.

The sprawling flora has completely overtaken the observatory. Vines snake up the walls in a grand tapestry and moss makes its home in every corner. 

Kakashi marvels at an enormous tree that has become the room's centerpiece. The great branches grazing the glass dome of the top, the ends of the leaves blooming the same pink flowers that adorned the corpse from earlier.

He takes a petal of the nearest flower, lavender, between his gloved fingers, the residual pigment staining his gloves a pale purple. His eyes roam the room, various flowering species, too numerous to name fill the space.

Kakashi turns to Kinoe, to vocalize his awe. Kinoe is standing not far from him, a handful of blueberries in one hand as he picks them carefully from his palm to pop them in his mouth. He catches Kakashi staring and offers some up.

“Do you want some, Lightning Pilot? They’re good. Better than the strawberries I think.”  
“Is this…how you’ve been surviving?” Kakashi gestures around them, “All this time, by yourself?”

Kinoe looks away from him then, opting to stare at a patch of vibrant sunflowers, the pigment reflecting in his dark eyes as he picks a single bulb from the stalk. Turning it over in his fingers, his eyes somewhere far away.

“When you’re alone…It doesn’t seem like there’s any reason to go on.”

A pang shoots through Kakashi’s chest with a grimace. He knows the sentiment all too well. Here, surrounded by the vast, uncaring, emptiness of space, it seems futile. Only in the company of the swirling void.

“But…If there’s two of you, or even just some flowers, then there’s a reason…” Kinoe drops the bulb, tracking the fall with a sad smile and soft eyes. He turns to Kakashi, embarrassed.

“I’m sorry, you’re the first person that I’ve…been able to speak with…like that.”

Kakashi doesn’t know if it’s the fact that Kinoe is the first human contact he’s had in three years or if it’s because he feels some sort of kinship with him, being alone and having lost everything. But surrounded by the lush greenery and the prospect of a new companion, it doesn’t feel so lonely.

The command center and his confusion can wait a little longer.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. It’s nice being around someone for a change.” Kakashi places a hand on Kinoe’s head, ruffling his hair gently, his own eyes soft as he chuckles.

Kinoe stiffens, eyes darting up to the hand before a genuine smile spreads across his features.

“Are you alone too, Lightning Pilot?” Kinoe asks in earnest, eyes wide and shining with something Kakashi is cautious to call hope.

“It’s Kakashi, and,” Kakashi pauses, dropping his hand back to his side. He knows it’s unwise to give away his position, no matter the demeanor of the other party.

“Something like that.” Kakashi’s reply comes with a non committed hum as he makes his way around the observatory.

He’s entranced by the greenery, so abundant that calls forth a painful reminder. The great forests of his hometown in fire country.

“Were all these plants here before? It’s strange, there’s no dirt for the root systems.” Kakashi comments as he inspects a strip of lilacs that seem to be growing straight from the metal flooring. 

“Not before the attack. But afterward is when everything started growing, it’s pretty neat, don’t you think?” 

Kakashi pauses, looking over to Kinoe, whose happily tending to a plot of what he can only assume are tomatoes. Neat isn’t a word that Kakashi would describe the aftermath of a massacre nor is happy an emotion that he would think he’d feel if everyone on his ship was murdered. He narrows his eyes, Kinoe oblivious to his suspicion.

“You know, the command center isn’t on this side of the ship.” Kakashi crosses the space to Kinoe, careful of the life teeming beneath his feet. Kinoe snaps his attention to him, his fingers stuttering on the tomato vine.

“I-It’s not? I’m sorry, I must have gotten turned around- I don’t have clearance for the command center.”  
“Mhm, Let’s head there now though, okay?”

Kinoe nods as they approach a large map of the ship mounted on the opposite wall. The vines don’t obscure the elaborate layout of the ship.

“I-It’s here?” Kinoe swallows hard, finger shaking as he points to a space near the front of the ship, the cockpit. Kakashi follows the trembling digit back to Kinoe’s darting eyes.

Kakashi memorizes the map with a glance, the ship built like a winding maze. Four levels in all, overlapping in different colored lines to comprise a single two dimensional shape. He doesn’t recall seeing any stairwells or elevator shafts on his walkthrough. But he can confidently conclude that they’re somewhere on the third level, thanks to the observatory. True middle if the single blackened square labeled “lower level entry” holds any truth. 

“Not quite. It’s here.” Kakashi takes Kinoe’s wrist, moving his hand  
“Right, of course.”  
“Come on, Kinoe.”

Kakashi leads them through the halls this time, Kinoe remains quiet as he trails after Kakashi. The echo of his footfalls the only indication that he’s still following. Kakashi contents himself with the knowledge.

Kakashi stops abruptly and Kinoe peeks around his arm to the cause. A sealed doorway. This close to the command center a separate generator must be providing power if the red light, blinking light, on the keypad is any indication.

Kakashi sighs as he runs a palm along the creases of the airlock, looking for any weakness in architecture. The door itself is tungsten, three inches thick and solid. He could use a discharge from the Capacitor to short circuit the keypad but he would rather save his strength.

“We’re going to need a keycard.”  
“This should do it!” Kinoe chirps, coming between Kakashi and the door to slide the keycard through. The light turns green with a beep and the door slides open with a screech. Kinoe steps through before motioning Kakashi to follow.

“I thought you said, you weren’t an officer.” Kakashi keeps his voice conversational, casual even as he follows Kinoe through the doorway.

“I’m not…I needed a keycard to get out.”  
“Get out, of where?”  
“The lower levels, I couldn’t…stay there.”  
“Mhm.”

The plant life on this side of the ship is sparse but still, without a doubt, present. Pollen circulates around the vents overhead as shoots of grass spring up from the cracks of the floor. Clusters of flowers dot the seams of the ships panels. 

“On this side too…” Kakashi whispers to himself, too low for Kinoe to catch his frustration. Kakashi needs clarity. There’s too many questions with riddles for answers.

The plant infested ship, the lack of survivors…Kinoe’s behavior…

Kakashi removes his eyepatch. The bisected eyelid fluttering open. The Sharingan glows in the lack of light, the tomoe whirl to life.

The bacteria of the Sharingan have an interesting ability, able to detect anomalies with ease, distinguishing itself from foreign bacteria. Kakashi keeps his gaze low to inspect the plant life. The grass grows phosphorescent under the watchful prowess of the Sharingan eye. 

His eyebrows pinch together as he roams over stalk, the entirety of it contaminated by bacteria. No, the particles are too fused for it to be simple contamination, normal plants wouldn’t contain a phage signature. These aren’t plants at all, just synthetic components constructed to form replicates. Organic, it would seem at first glance, but the composition consists wholly of a bacterial entity. His eyes widen at the realization, synthetic bacteria. All of these plants. His pulse quickens as he tracks the particles like a trail up to the source.

“Kinoe, what attacked the ship?” Kakashi brings his right arm down in front of him, feeling the pull of the Capacitor as it siphors proteins to gather a charge.

“I told you, I didn’t see it. I was hiding.” Kinoe’s back shines like a beacon, no cell unfused. 100% contamination. 

“It was you, wasn’t it.”

The silence that falls between them is deafening as the crackling pressure of manifesting electricity fills the space.

“Why…did you have to go and ask me something like that?” Kinoe turns to face Kakashi, fear and desperation etched into the lines of his eyes.

The discharge of the Capacitor ignites in a scream, as Kakashi lunges. The lightning in his palm connects to a wooden shield, splintering it on impact. The recoil has Kakashi staggering back, a shard of wood clips the high of his cheek. Kinoe takes the opportunity to run, opting to put as much distance between him and Kakashi as possible.

Kakashi, undeterred, continues the assault. the Capacitor erupts again, the discharge colliding with the wall of the hallway, incinating the panels as he drags his hand through the metal. Kinoe ducks, avoiding the flare of the sparks, with a gasp.

Kakashi chases him into an open area. A large room with numerous catwalks overhead to observe the goings-on down below. Kinoe uses the space to his advantage, to finally face him, throwing up wall after wall only for Kakashi to cut through them with ease. 

Through the burning sawdust the whirl of the Sharingan makes Kinoe freeze, the tomoe a hypnotic swirl against the red backdrop as the pupil within vibrates.

Another shriek of lightning jolts him out of his stupor in time to dodge, if only barely. The lightning cuts through the fabric of his sleeve with an unparalleled viciousness, scorching the skin below.

Kinoe stumbles back. His arm transformed into a thick branch to drive Kakashi away, to provide much needed distance.

“You said you wouldn’t hurt me!” Kinoe pleads. Eyes wide as he holds his now, near useless, right arm. He tries to run again but Kakashi catches by the hair with his left hand, pulling him close for the final blow. Kinoe pushes back against him, gaining enough momentum to swing his leg up, foot connecting hard to Kakashi’s jaw.

Kakashi staggers back, holding his jaw. He can feel the current build in his palm as the Capacitor charges.

“That’s before I knew what you were! I can’t let you live!”  
“T-They were hurting me! I-I couldn’t take it anymore!”

Kinoe’s heaving with exertion, sweat accumulating in a thick film on his brow. His technique must use the same principle as Kakashi’s, transforming proteins into viable materials. But unlike Kakashi, Kinoe doesn’t have the use of a Capacitor to relieve the strain. His body has to work twice as hard to compensate.

“It’s my mission, anomalies like you must be destroyed!”

The Capacitor screams to life as another electrical discharge is created. Kakashi lunges and Kinoe is too exhausted to make more than a simple barrier. A barrier to only prolong the inevitable. He’s taken to the ground as Kakashi’s weight hits him full force.

Kakashi rears up, lightning crackling.

“I’m still a person! K-Kakashi!” Kinoe pleads from beneath him and the lightning stutters as Kakashi’s eyes widen.

The high pitched screech of a ship's alarm tears through Kakashi’s mind as his vision blurs. Rins face, fear stricken and tear stained overlays Kinoe’s cry.

If kinoe is a person, if he can retain his mind, his emotion…His fear…

Couldn’t she have been the same?

Couldn’t she have been the same in her final moments. She was, wasn’t she?

Before the Rangers stormed the wreckage of his ship, ushering him away from the monster his friend would be.

At the end, couldn’t she have still been a person?

The Sharingan eye fills with salt, welling over the lash line, to drop on the corner of Kinoe’s eye, sliding down in a single stream as if it were his own.

Kakashi stills, his muscles locked up from the shock as the electricity dies out.

They stay like that.

“I-it’s in you too, I know it is. Aren’t we the same…? Y-You’re not a monster….You’re not a monster and neither am I…” Kinoe whispers. Kakashi isn’t sure when he grabbed his wrist. But the hold is there, tight and pleading. Grounding him to the present.

Kakashi wretches his wrist away before he stands, an agitated hand running through his hair.

“I never made contact with this ship. You never encountered a Ranger from Konoha. Do you understand?”

Kinoe nods from his place on the ground, eyes dazed as he stares at the stars that sail past the large windows above.

“I said, do you understand?!” Kakashi shouts as he turns to face Kinoe, who scrambles up into a sitting position, eyes locked to the floor.

“Y-yes, I understand.”  
“Good.” Kakashi says with a resignation not unlike finality.

“Take an escape pod. Get off this ship. If we meet again, there won’t be an opportunity for mercy. Whatever happens to you from this point on is none of my business or concern.”

Kinoe nods, hands in tight fists against his thighs. He’s trembling, but he knows he can’t attribute it to fear, he doesn’t want to be alone again. The prospect of loneliness shouldn’t come as a surprise though it’s an unbearable thought all the same.

Kakashi turns swiftly, leaving Kinoe rooted to the spot, he’s made his decision. 

Suddenly, without warning, an explosion on the upper level of the haul rocks the ship in its entirety. Kakashi cuts his eyes up to the overhead railing as the smoke clears.

A gloved hand reaches through the ruptured metal to grip the sides and pull himself through. Embers and sparks fall away from his suit as he steps onto the catwalk to loom over them.

“Who are you! Identify yourself!” Kakashi faces the intruder fully, there’s no power signature that the Sharingan can detect. But from the appearance of the suit, no identifying marks and stark black with a top coat of deep purple that shimmers in the remnants of the fire behind him, Kakashi realizes what he’s dealing with.

A Mercenary.

The Mercenary stares Kakashi down from his place on the catwalk. The helmet he’s wearing tinted impossibly dark, the chrome finish reflecting his surroundings with clarity.

He doesn’t make a move to identify himself or his motives. The eerie quiet that’s settled into the atmosphere has Kakashi’s pulse picking up.

He, the Mercenary, simply turns from Kakashi, ignoring his presence completely and instead zeroing in on Kinoe.

Kinoe scrambles to his feet before breaking out into a sprint, back into the recesses of the ship. The Mercenary jumps down from his perch, landing with a supernatural ease before giving chase.

“Kinoe!” Kakashi yells as he too follows.

**Author's Note:**

> Kakashi: What happens to you is none of my business.
> 
> *Something Happens*
> 
> Kakashi:....
> 
> Kakashi: oh my god this is my business, this is my business, this is my business, this is-


End file.
